Unanimous MVPs Judge, Ohtani made it a no-doubter with historic seasons

They weren’t just the two best seasons of their time but two of the absolute best seasons of all-time. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge left absolutely no doubt as to how the Baseball Writers’ Association of America MVP honors would turn out, so all that was left Thursday night on MLB Network was to make it official. And unanimous.

• All-time MVP Award winners

Ohtani, the two-way wonder who was relegated by elbow surgery to designated hitter duties in his first season with the World Series champion Dodgers, claimed his third MVP and his first in the NL with a 50-homer, 50-steal season that was truly one of a kind. He joined Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only players to win MVP in both leagues.

“I’m just representing the Dodgers,” Ohtani said through interpreter Matt Hidaka. “It was a complete team effort. I wouldn’t have been able to receive this award if it weren’t for my teammates. If we didn’t play as a team, we would not have gotten to the playoffs or won the World Series. So I take this as representing a team, receiving this award.”

And Judge, the mammoth Yankee captain, fell just shy of his AL single-season home run record but nevertheless had one of the greatest offensive performances ever by a right-handed hitter, en route to his second AL MVP in the last three years.

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“I was talking to [two-time MVP Bryce] Harper a lot this season and telling him, ‘Man, I’m going to try to catch up to you in these MVPs here,’” Judge joked. “It means a lot [to win another]. Just a lot of hard work in the offseason, during the season, the ups and downs throughout it. Just the constant support from my teammates, the fans in New York, just everybody to help me get to this spot.”

Both players received first-place votes on all 30 ballots submitted in their respective leagues, marking the second straight year both MVPs were unanimous after it had never happened prior to 2023.

• Here are the MVP Award vote totals

Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. finished second in the AL, with Judge’s Yankees teammate (and now free agent) Juan Soto in third. Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was second in the NL, with Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte in third.

The performances of these two likely future Hall of Famers in the regular season were overwhelming. Yes, Lindor took on the leadoff spot and put the Mets on his back, bound for October, by rattling off 33 homers and 29 steals to go with his dynamic defense at short. And yes, Witt was the most well-rounded player in MLB this year, also playing dazzling defense at the premier position while becoming the first player in history with at least 30 homers, 40 doubles, 10 triples and 25 steals in a season.

But those elite players with elite outcomes had to settle for second because of what Ohtani and Judge accomplished.

• Winners of multiple major year-end awards

Unable to pitch for 2024, Ohtani committed to intense speed-training exercises, upped his aggression and wound up swiping 59 bags in 63 attempts. That he did so while banging out 54 homers, 38 doubles and seven triples – notching only 98 singles among his 197 hits – made the feat all the more astounding.

“I didn’t have specific number goals,” said Ohtani, “but I did want to improve my stolen base numbers.”

It’s not just that Ohtani became the first player in history to post a 50-50 season. And it’s not just that he reached that threshold with one of the most otherworldly individual games the sport had ever seen (a 6-for-6, 10-RBI, three-homer, two-double, two-steal rampage in Miami on Sept. 19).

• Players with most MVP Awards in MLB history

It’s that, prior to this Ohtani outcome, no one had ever reached 50 homers in a season while also stealing more than 24 bags. And Ohtani became just the third player to finish in the top two in MLB in both homers and steals, joining Deadball Era icons Honus Wagner (1908) and Ty Cobb (1909).

So now the 30-year-old Ohtani, who slashed .310/.390/.646, makes history of a different sort, becoming the first full-time DH to win the MVP. Of course, to label a man who can steal that many bags and who next season will resume a pitching career that so far has resulted in a 38-19 record, 3.01 ERA and 142 ERA+ merely a “hitter” is a misnomer to begin with.

“I obviously don’t go into the season trying to strive to get the MVP Award,” said Ohtani, who this year was joined on the announcement show not just by his popular dog, Decoy, but also by his wife, Mamiko Tanaka. “I was focused on being one of the guys with a new team, the Dodgers, and I wanted to embrace the fans, as well, and let them know who I was.”

Ohtani is the Dodgers’ 13th MVP and first since Cody Bellinger in 2019. He’s the sixth player to win an MVP with multiple franchises, joining Harper, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Robinson and Jimmie Foxx, and just the second to win one in both leagues (Robinson). He’s also the first player since Miguel Cabrera (2012-13) to win an MVP in back-to-back years. Ohtani had already been the first player to win multiple unanimous MVPs (in 2021 and 2023 with the Angels). Now, he’s done it again.

And yet, as amazing as Ohtani’s offensive performance was, Judge’s was superior in multiple key metrics.

Judge hit an MLB-leading 58 homers, four shy of the AL record he had set in 2022. He drove in an MLB-best 144 runs, along with the leads in game-winning RBIs (24) and go-ahead RBIs (32). He drew an MLB-best 133 walks. He had an MLB-best .458 on-base percentage, .701 slugging percentage and 1.159 OPS. His fWAR (11.2) and bWAR (10.8) were both at the top of the list.

But the best way to sum up the 32-year-old Judge’s season was his 223 OPS+. That’s a metric adjusted for the offensive environment in a given year, and this is a year in which power and average were down across the board. Per OPS+, Judge’s batting performance was 123% better than the league average – the highest by a right-handed hitter in the AL or NL in the modern era, which dates back to 1901.

Judge was quick to cite batting behind Soto as a big reason for his season.

“Seeing the pitches,” he said. “We all know this guy’s gonna be on base 50 percent of the time, if not more. But just, the quality of every single at-bat. It didn’t matter if he went up there and flew out or struck out. If you’re going to strike out Juan Soto, it’s going to take 10-12 pitches to get it by him. It’s impressive. I get to see how the pitcher’s feeling today, what pitches are working, is he going to the two-seamer now, is he trying to go to his wipeout slider now. So it just gave me a better picture of what to expect stepping into the box.”

That the 6-foot-7, 282-pound Judge did this while patrolling center field for a Yankees team in need makes the offensive might all the more meaningful.

“The team, we needed somebody to play center, and I felt it was best for the team,” Judge said. “So I said, ‘I’ll play center field, as long as you guys need me out there. I’ll play left, I’ll play right. Whatever gives us the best lineup.’ Especially when you go out and get a guy like Juan Soto, the most important thing is making sure he’s comfortable. And when he’s comfortable, you can see what he does and what he did this year.”

Judge marks the 22nd Yankees MVP since the BBWAA began voting on the award in 1931, the most of any team. He’s only the second Yankee to win the award unanimously, joining Mickey Mantle (1956).

Though their clash in the Fall Classic did not result in the individual performances people anticipated, Judge and Ohtani had done plenty to get their clubs to October in the first place. They both made history, and they both made it easy on the MVP voters.